Nonprofit launches Fort Collins Beer Week

FORT COLLINS – A nonprofit will present Fort Collins Beer Week. a local component to the national event American Craft Beer Week in May.

American Craft Beer Week runs from May 11 to 18, and Fort Collins Beer Week will run simultaneously, involving a series of events incorporating local brewers into events ranging from educational to entertaining. The event will be presented by Fortified Collaborations and the Colorado Brewers Guild.

Fortified Collaborations is a nonprofit that spun out of Be Local, a Fort Collins-based nonprofit that closed its doors and laid off its staff in April 2013 and is now in the midst of a crowdfunding campaign to reboot itself.

Two former Be Local employees created Fortified Collaborations to focus on promoting craft beer and local food in Fort Collins.

In conjunction with the Boulder-based Colorado Brewers Guild and Fort Collins breweries, Fortified Collaborations will put on an “un-festival,” which will kick off at Tony’s Bar and Rooftop at 224 S. College Ave. The event will include beer on tap from every local brewer.

The week will also include a brewer’s Olympics event, to be held at Go West T-Shirt Co., l at 1725 Heath Parkway in Fort Collins. Employees from Go West, which manufactures shirts for many local breweries, will referee for the breweries as they square off in a series of beer-related games.

A full calendar of events and ticket prices can be found here.www.fortcollinsbeerweek.com

The purpose of Fort Collins Beer Week is to draw special attention to the local breweries while the country’s beer industry as a whole celebrates craft brewing.

“Fort Collins Beer Week is all about our breweries,´ said Fortified Collaborations’ creative director Kristina Cash in a statement. “It’s an opportunity for everyone to come together, have fun, and recognize what the breweries bring to this community through their passion and craft.”

Fortified Collaborations will also publish the “Guide to Fort Collins Beer Week,” to hit newsstands May 1. The guide will include a list of events and a map of all the city’s breweries.

Molly Armbrister covers real estate, banking and health care for the Northern Colorado Business Report. She can be reached at 970-232-3139, marmbrister@ncbr.com or twitter.com/MArmbristerNCBR